Instead, The Brink – which so clearly wanted to be Dr. Strangelove, or at the very least, In the Loop – makes several pivotal mistakes. The first is its failure to take its subject matter seriously enough to afford it some semblance of nuance and tension, while also being funny. You know, like Dr. Strangelove. The second is that the series is clearly convinced two of its more obnoxious characters (i.e., Alex Talbot and Walter Larson) are plucky heroes of the story, it misses a crucial opportunity to say something (anything) about the sloppy state of politics and world affairs, choosing instead to focus on the most obvious sex, drug, or bodily function-related joke possible.You wouldn’t expect a series so in love with its own tepid sense of brinkmanship to turn into another example of blue-sky television, but that’s exactly what HBO’s disappointing geopolitical satire The Brink turns out to be, as it wraps up season 1 with an episode whose title, ‘There Will Be Consequences,’ provides the only genuine reason to laugh.